So what we have now is "your idea that autistic people are a spiritually and intellectually superior race, that autistic children should be protected from socialisation, force-fed mathematics and groomed as prophets, and that autistic people are the victim of a massive genocidal conspiracy?"

Interesting. I'm assuming I missed some interesting stuff while I was gone...

ATM: Sir, with the exception of the "genocidal" notion, common to AFF members who understand that genetic testing will bode ill, these are views that I do not hold.  

Thank you again.  All the best.

So what was all that about God's attempt to create a race of prophets?

And what about the endless "holy purpose" threads, where you rant about how Autistic children should be "protected" from socialisation and forced to conform to "high standards"?  What about the autistic kid you were employed to assist, who you laid a whole bunch of extra "rules" on, only to have it end badly because the kid wasn't interested in being your little indigo child?

I have raised these issues before but ATM has refused to debate his ideas - prefering to give people like me, Tigger and Batman a metephorical pat on the head and say something dismissive along the lines of "one day when I have time to explain this in terms simple enough for you to understand you're realise that I'm right and you're wrong".

All I'm saying is that before you get someone else's innocent child mixed up in your crazy ideas, think about whether you're really acting in the best interests of THAT CHILD, as an INDIVIDUAL... or that child as symbolic of this concept of The Autist as an intellectual and spiritual super-being.

ATM: Ma'am, "Holy Purpose" is a different concept than "Master Race."  It is not comparative.  Rather, it is individual and unique, neither equal nor unequal.  I hope that this unsettles any confusion.

Thank you again.

All the best.

Actually, it IS unsettling, but still confusing.

To me, it still sounds like autistic people were created for some special spiritual task.  By extension, they are Special.  Different.  The Chosen People.

And I don't like that concept for two reasons....

1.  It's divisionist thinking.  I believe this is very dangerous.  It does NOTHING to break down the misunderstandings and stereotypes the rest of the world has of autistic people, and fosters us/them thinking.  It ENCOURAGES the 'normal' world to think of autistic people as Different, Abnormal, Not Like Us.  Autistic people ARE a part of the wider community; we have a lot to offer the normal world and the normal world has a lot to offer us.  To wall ourselves off in an enclave and label ourselves as different will achieve nothing good for us.  

Allowing autistic children to not socialise or learn self care skills because they don't want to, to wrap them up in cotton wool and protect them from the real, normal, everyday world, is ultimately to do them a major disservice - being protected is lovely I'm sure, but being in command of your own destiny - which you can't do if you can neither ask for help nor help yourself - is much, much better.

Holding autistic children up to "high standards" is a kick in the guts to every autistic person who happens to NOT have the savant skills or super intelligence you personally value so highly.

2.  It's bullshit.  I am diagnosed autistic.  I am nobody's prophet and am unexceptional in both spirituality and academic processing.  Therefore, I am letting the side down and failed to reach your "high standards".  Well, pardon me for not passing the test to be a member of the autistic race.

In my humble opinion you should do whatever it takes to keep the autistic child from being sifted through the american school system, placed in special ed and/or and put on medication. Get help from a lawyer, do whatever it takes. The prisons are expanding rapidly all over the country to make room for those who fall through the cracks of the industrial revolution's education system legacy. Your autistic child will be generating capital in the dark murky facets of the american prison system after he generates capital for a bogus and corrupt business like the drug companies and the food and drug administration.

Also, bring your kid to work and let him boss people around for a few weeks. That will teach him the pride, ignorance and confidence he will need to make it in life. Whatever you do just teach him to be demanding and unsympathetic to others who are less fortunate then him and he will be set for life.

This is a joke, no? At the very least, the bolded stuff? Or is it a sarcastic expression of your pessimism for society?

Also, the individual being talked about is not the child of the poster, but of another child.

Definitely sarcastic. Sad reflection of society.

I know its not the child of the poster, Ive heard ATm talk about this situation before.

Its night night time.

It's discussion  forum, ATM. You're using it for a blog.

Solution: get a blog.

Thank you.

ATM, you didn't thank Max for researching links you might find useful, yet you called Ethel 'ma'am' and thanked her, even gave best wishes, while not answering her questions.

In the past you have failed to answer questions of mine on the grounds of lack of time yet have subsequently started further threads with long posts.

I'm afraid your apparent politeness is starting to look like condescension.

ATM,

Ugly situation.  I don't have much advice for you, but I would like to congratulate you for helping people.

Thank you.

Seriously ATM, I was staying out of this because I was hoping to see how you would defend yourself.  But you haven't.  It's really, really annoying when someone says 'I'm sorry, what I just said means something completely different from what it apparently means but I haven't the time to explain it to you just now, ta.'

Helping a child is to be applauded, but these people are voicing concerns--valid concerns, based on the views you have expressed--about whether you have the child's best interests in mind.  Would you very much mind answering them?  It would be rather impolite to ignore such requests, however much you dress up your responses.